SEEING AMERICA FROM THE "SHENANDOAH"
WHERE SOIL IS FERTILE AND FARMS ARE CLOSE: NEAR RICIIMOND, INDIANA
"From the skies the undulating earth seemed covered with carpets in drab and green and
rugs of bright colors, cut into squares and strange shapes, and marked with strings of white,
which were highways."
Chickens and cows are scurrying for cover as the Shenandoah's
shadow skims over Richmond, in the famous Whitewater Valley, on the Old National Road.
bearings by radio almost every minute,
but the one on Point Loma was silent,
closed by an economical government.
The ship could tell that it was on a line,
but without the cross-bearing from an
other station could not locate the exact
point.
At 9:03 the fog started to burn off.
Point Loma suddenly jumped into view,
seemingly only a few feet under the
bridge, at 10 o'clock. The ship landed on
the field at 10:55 a. m. and was moored
to the mast at I :40.
Rear Admiral Moffett had left the ship
at Camp Lewis. Captain Stanford E.
Moses, commander of the air squadron
of the battle fleet, and Lieutenant Com
mander R. D. Kirkpatrick, battle fleet
aviation officer, had made the voyages
between San Diego and Tacoma. Joe
Johnson, the movie operator, made the
northbound voyage.
Captain Thomas T. Craven, commander
of the San Diego station, came aboard at
San Diego. No more passengers could
be risked for the trying trip over the
mountains.
The Shenandoah cast off from San
Diego at I I :07 a. m., October 22, headed
south toward Tia Juana, circled between
the Otay reservoir and the city to warm
up and increase her buoyancy, to get an
altitude of 6,000 feet before crossing the
first cordillera of the Rockies. She was
going south of the Salton Sea.
With 18,ooo pounds of fuel aboard,
she was heavy and her motors were driv
ing full speed, 1,400 revolutions a minute,
while her length tilted upward at an angle
of 12 degrees in order to stay in the air.
BREASTING AIR WAVES 1,000 FEET IIGII
Machinist S. C. IIalliburton, the assist
ant engineer officer, clambered down on
to the "bridge" twice, with shivery sug
gestions about the possibility of ending
the trip on the side of a mountain.
Sailing was bumpy, and the heavy ship
was gliding on the swirling air waves in
dips which the altimeter showed were